'The loss of DEI-Phobic companies is my gain': Mark Cuban defends diversity programs as good business practice

Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban defended diversity, equity, and inclusion as a business strategy in a thread of comments where he explained his interpretation of what the controversial programs mean.

Cuban was responding on X to owner Elon Musk who had described DEI as "racism" the day before.

"DEI is just another word for racism. Shame on anyone who uses it," Musk wrote in a post on X. "Discrimination on the basis of race, which DEI does, is literally the definition of racism," he noted in another post.

Directly replying to Musk, the tech mogul explained what he thought defined each portion of DEI.

For diversity, Cuban simply stated that businesses should look to hire diverse work forces to "put your business in the best possible position to succeed."

"You may not agree, but I take it as a given that there are people of various races, ethnicities, orientation, etc that are regularly excluded from hiring consideration," Cuban continued. He went on to conclude that simply extending hiring searches to include such people means more qualified individuals would be found.

"The loss of DEI-Phobic companies is my gain," he added.

"Treating people equally does not mean treating them the same," Cuban said for equity. The billionaire then explained that employers should put their employees "in a position to succeed."

"Recognize their differences and play to their strengths where ever possible."

It is important to note that typical DEI programs do not define equity as allowing employees to succeed; it is usually related to providing advantages based on race or other immutable characteristics, theoretically to make up for prior alleged injustices.

For example, the National Association of Colleges and Employers describes equity in part as attempting to "identify and overcome intentional and unintentional barriers arising from bias or systemic structures."

Inclusion, which is often used to justify the hiring of an employee based on their race or sexual orientation, was described by Cuban as "making all employees, no matter who they are or how they see themselves, feel comfortable in their environment and able to do their jobs."

The "Shark Tank" star concluded by throwing to the replies to his thread, seemingly implying that DEI programs are needed due to certain "feelings" that are expressed in the workplace:

Many notable respondents did not agree with Cuban's framing of the DEI definitions:

"Mark you are defining words in a way nobody else does, and certainly not how they put them into practice," said commentator Dave Rubin.

"Unclear if you're being dishonest here, redefining words to win a twitter argument, or if you truly just have no idea how DEI has worked throughout the country. but 'equity' in practice has meant race-based hiring quotas and bonuses. it is evil," added Mike Solana, editor in chief of tech brand Pirate Wires.

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